The Lamar County Board of Supervisors is in the process of appointing an eight-person team – made up of District 4 Supervisor Phillip Carlisle, District 1 Supervisor Steve Lampton, Director of Parks and Recreation Heath Sellers and one yet-to-be-named resident from each of the county’s five districts – to map out a vision for a proposed sports complex for the county.
Lamar County Administrator Jody Waits said the “vision team” will visit similar sites in the region to best determine a course of action for the complex, which was discussed as a possibility in the September 2018 Lamar County Comprehensive Plan.
“Forty-five percent of the surveys that we received back from the public (in that plan) indicated that there was a need for a centralized sports complex, and over the past year we’ve heard that need,” he said. “So now, the conversation moving forward is, what would be the vision for that?
“The ultimate goal would be to find out how to fund that, so we hope to take advantage of BP (Oil Spill) settlement money, plus we can try to get some money from the Legislature or private investors. We want to first figure out how we can fund it, short of going to the taxpayers.”
If all goes according to plan, the team is expected to return to an upcoming board meeting, after which point an engineering study and drawings will need to be conducted.
The committee also will determine which sports to focus on at the complex. At this stage in the process, supervisors are leaning toward soccer, tennis and football, given the county already has several baseball fields and many families currently travel to places like Tatum Park in Forrest County to participate in the other sports.
Carlisle said he would prefer to have people on the committee with an overall “sports-minded” thought process, rather than individuals who would focus on one particular sport.
“To me, we want to do this thing right the first time,” he said. “In order to do that, we’re going to have to load up and go look at some sites. There’s some great sportsplexes down in the Gulfport area, and some great ones in Louisiana … that we can go and look at.
“So if somebody’s done something really nice, we can meet with the folks that were responsible, then we can do this thing right. And I like the idea of some community involvement – some people out there that can give input on this.”
The main possible site being discussed for the complex is a 108-acre parcel of 16th-section land, owned by the Lamar County School District, off U.S. 98 just west of Oloh.
“We could do a recreational lease with the school system to use that land for this sportsplex,” Waits said.
Although there is no timeline for construction on the complex, Waits said officials are hopeful that the process will start sooner rather than later.
Back in September, lawmakers were able to secure $3 million for Lamar County as a result of Mississippi’s lawsuit against BP for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In all, some $750 million was distributed statewide with a bulk of it going to the six coastal counties – Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone and George.
Of the $3 million coming to Lamar County, $1.5 million will be used for safety improvements to the intersection of Mississippi 589 and Scruggs Road in Sumrall, $1 million will go to the Lamar County School District to help pay for facility repairs and improvements at Lumberton schools and $500,000 will be set aside for parks and infrastructure improvements in Sumrall.
About $500,000 of the settlement money is available for use in District 5.
“That money is available also, but we would like to (see more of those funds),” Waits said.
In addition to the sports complex, Lamar County residents also addressed several other needs in the 20-year comprehensive plan, such as an updated library system and improved infrastructure, as well as litter and traffic concerns.
